East Jerusalem neighborhood vandalized in suspected hate crime

The tires of 15 vehicles were punctured overnight in an East Jerusalem neighborhood as part of a suspected hate crime, a NGO based in the city said Sunday.

Graffiti was also found on a wall in Issawiya reading “Jerusalem Arabs are terrorists, Havat Gilad,” according to the left-wing Ir Amim organization.

The graffiti was apparently in reference to the Havat Gilad settlement outpost in the northern West Bank. A woman was killed near there on Thursday by a Palestinian driver in an apparent hit-and-run, though the military has not ruled out the possibility that it was a terror attack. The driver turned himself in to Palestinian police shortly after.

Citing local residents, Ir Amim said police officers who arrived in Issawiya cleaned off the graffiti. Police said an investigation has been opened into the incident and evidence was gathered to help track down the suspects.

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Though police did not indicate who was behind the vandalism, Jewish extremists have regularly carried out so-called “price tag” attacks following Palestinian violence or state demolition of illegal settlement homes in the West Bank.

Palestinian olive groves, mosques and churches have been targeted by far-right vandals in recent years, as have dovish Israeli rights groups and even Israeli military bases.